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Finnish politician (1877–1951)
Vilhelm Kiviniemi (17 March 1877 – 21 June 1951) was a
Finnish farmer, politician and member of the
Parliament of Finland , the national
legislature . A member of the
Social Democratic Party , he represented
Lapland between November 1917 and September 1918.
[1] He was amongst dozens of social democrat
MPs who were
persecuted for political reasons by the victorious
Whites following end of the
Finnish Civil War in 1918.
[1] Kiviniemi was
sentenced to death for
treason but this was later
commuted to
life imprisonment .
[2] He received a
presidential pardon in 1922.
Early life
Kiviniemi was born on 17 March 1877 in Kaukonen near
Kittilä .
[1]
[3] He was the great-grandson of Kittilä's first priest, Juho Nordberg.
[3]
[4] The Kiviniemi family were farmers in Kittilä.
[1]
[3] He was educated at the Kirkonkylän koulun folk school in Kittilä.
[3]
[4]
Politics and imprisonment
Kiviniemi took part in the 1905 Finnish
general strike .
[3]
[5] He contested the
1908 parliamentary election as a SDP candidate in Lapland.
[6]
[7] He also contested the
1909 ,
1910 and
1911 parliamentary elections.
[8]
[9]
[10] He was elected to the Parliament of Finland at the
1917 parliamentary election .
[11]
Following the end of the
Finnish Civil War ,
arrest warrants were issued for 50 social democrat MPs for
treason .
[12] [
better source needed ] 36 of these MPs had left the country but four of them, including Kiviniemi, returned to Finland and were imprisoned.
[12] [
better source needed ]
Prosecutors alleged that Kiviniemi had travelled from
Helsinki to
Kandalaksha in the Viena region of
Karelia (White Karelia), via
St. Petersburg and
Petrozavodsk , on the orders of
Red Guards leader
August Wesley .
[13]
[14] They alleged that Wesley had given Kiviniemi
Mk 20,000 to organise a Red Guard unit in
Archangel and produced a receipt for the money purportedly signed by Kiviniemi.
[15]
[16] Kiviniemi and his supporteds claimed that Kiviniemi had only entered Russia in order to make his way home to Kittilä and that the receipt had been signed by another Ville Kiviniemi.
[12] [
better source needed ]
[15]
In October 1918 the State Criminal Court
sentenced nine social democrat MPs (
Nestori Aronen ,
Erkki Härmä , Kiviniemi,
Jussi Kujala ,
Jukka Lankila ,
Juho Lautasalo ,
Paavo Leppänen ,
Yrjö Mäkelin and
Eetu Salin ) to
death for treason.
[17]
[18] A
petition signed by 118 members (87 socialists and 31 liberals) of the
Swedish
Riksdag was submitted to the
Finnish Government requesting
pardons for the nine MPs and others who had been sentenced to death.
[19]
[20] The court
commuted Kiviniemi's death sentence to
life imprisonment in January 1919.
[21]
[22] He was pardoned by
President
Kaarlo Juho Ståhlberg in January 1922.
[23]
[24] He was subsequently released from
Tammisaari
concentration camp .
[25]
[26]
Later life
Kiviniemi contested the
1929 parliamentary election as a
Socialist Electoral Organisation of Workers and Smallholders candidate in Lapland but came second behind
Agrarian Party candidate
Matti Hannula .
[27] He died on 21 June 1951 in Kittilä.
[1]
See also
References
^
a
b
c
d
e
"Kansanedustajat: Ville Kiviniemi" (in Finnish). Helsinki, Finland:
Parliament of Finland . Archived from
the original on 15 March 2019. Retrieved 13 July 2023 .
^
"Suomen terror ikauden ajoilta" . Nykyaika (in Finnish). Vol. XVI, no. 8. Fitchburg, U.S.A. 15 April 1922. p. 10. Retrieved 21 July 2023 – via
National Library of Finland .
^
a
b
c
d
e
"Pikku uutisia - Lapin edustaja" . Kaiku (in Finnish). No. 203. Oulu, Finland. 24 October 1917. p. 3. Retrieved 13 July 2023 – via
National Library of Finland .
^
a
b
"Pieniä uutisia" .
Pohjolan Sanomat (in Finnish). No. 125. Kemi, Finland. 31 October 1917. p. 7. Retrieved 17 July 2023 – via
National Library of Finland .
^ Aatsinki, Ulla (2008).
Tukkiliikkeestä kommunismiin : Lapin työväenliikkeen radikalisoituminen ennen ja jälkeen 1918 (in Finnish). Tampere, Finland: Tampere University Press. p. 104.
ISBN
978-951-44-7574-0 . Archived from
the original on 9 February 2023. Retrieved 13 July 2023 – via Trepo.
^
"Lapin vaalipiiri" . Kansan Tahto (in Finnish). No. 132. Oulu, Finland. 11 June 1908. p. 2. Retrieved 19 July 2023 – via
National Library of Finland .
^
"Lapin waalipiirissä" . Liitto (in Finnish). No. 76. Oulu, Finland. 9 July 1908. p. 3. Retrieved 19 July 2023 – via
National Library of Finland .
^
"Waalien tuloksia" . Sosialidemokraatti (in Finnish). No. 50. Pori, Finland. 11 May 1909. p. 4. Retrieved 19 July 2023 – via
National Library of Finland .
^
"Viime tiedot" . Vapaa Sana (in Finnish). No. 19. Vaasa, Finland. 16 February 1910. p. 3. Retrieved 19 July 2023 – via
National Library of Finland .
^
"Lapin waalipiiristä" .
Kaleva (in Finnish). No. 6. Oulu, Finland. 10 January 1911. p. 3. Retrieved 19 July 2023 – via
National Library of Finland .
^
Toiset Valtiopäivät 1917: Pöytäkirjat I - Istunnot 1-48 - Valtiopäivien alusta tammikuun 25 päivään (PDF) (in Finnish). Helsinki, Finland:
Parliament of Finland . 1918. p. 5. Retrieved 25 February 2023 .
^
a
b
c Karpén, Harri (2015).
Voittajan sana on laki : tutkimus legalismista, luonnonoikeudesta ja suvereenista vallankäytöstä, esimerkkinä Suomi vuonna 1918 (Master's thesis) (in Finnish). Tampere, Finland. p. 47. Archived from
the original on 29 May 2023. Retrieved 17 July 2023 – via Trepo.
^
"Ed. Ville Kiviniemi" .
Kaleva (in Finnish). No. 225. Oulu, Finland. 5 October 1918. p. 2. Retrieved 18 July 2023 – via
National Library of Finland .
^
"Sosialistiedustajain maankavallusjutut" . Uusi Päivä (in Finnish). No. 166. Helsinki, Finland. 3 October 1918. p. 1. Retrieved 19 July 2023 – via
National Library of Finland .
^
a
b
"Ed. Wille Kiwiniemen juttu waltiorikosoikeudessa" .
Kaleva (in Finnish). No. 226. Oulu, Finland. 7 October 1918. p. 3. Retrieved 19 July 2023 – via
National Library of Finland .
^
"Lapin sosialistiedustaja Kiwiniemi syytettynä waltiopetoksesta" .
Pohjolan Sanomat (in Finnish). No. 115. Kemi, Finland. 8 October 1918. p. 3. Retrieved 19 July 2023 – via
National Library of Finland .
^
"Kapinallisten kansanedustajain tuomiot" .
Turun Sanomat (in Finnish). No. 4170. Turku, Finland. 13 October 1918. p. 1. Retrieved 17 July 2023 – via
National Library of Finland .
^
"Kapinallisten kansanedustajain tuomiot" .
Pohjolan Sanomat (in Finnish). No. 121. Kemi, Finland. 15 October 1918. p. 3. Retrieved 17 July 2023 – via
National Library of Finland .
^
"Svenskarna oeh de dödsdömda upprorsmännen - Hänvändningen till Finlands regering" .
Östra Nyland (in Swedish). No. 64. Loviisa, Finland. 26 October 1918. p. 3. Retrieved 21 July 2023 – via
National Library of Finland .
^
"Sos.-dem. kansanedustajain tuomiot" . Itä-Suomen Työmies (in Finnish). No. 167. Viipuri, Finland. 26 October 1918. p. 1. Retrieved 21 July 2023 – via
National Library of Finland .
^
"Sosialistiedustajain tuomiot" .
Pohjolan Sanomat (in Finnish). No. 6. Kemi, Finland. 11 January 1919. p. 3. Retrieved 17 July 2023 – via
National Library of Finland .
^
"Kemistä ja Perä-Pohjolasta" . Perä-Pohjolainen (in Finnish). No. 4. Kemi, Finland. 14 January 1919. p. 2. Retrieved 17 July 2023 – via
National Library of Finland .
^
"Uljöliemmin ilmoittaa STT" .
Aamulehti (in Finnish). No. 22. Tampere, Finland. 27 January 1922. p. 2. Retrieved 18 July 2023 – via
National Library of Finland .
^
"Vankilan portteja aukaistu" . Pohjan Kansa (in Finnish). No. 21. Oulu, Finland. 27 January 1922. p. 1. Retrieved 17 July 2023 – via
National Library of Finland .
^
"Kellarista päimänmatoon" . Työn Voima (in Finnish). No. 25. Jyväskylä, Finland. 1 February 1922. p. 1. Retrieved 17 July 2023 – via
National Library of Finland .
^
"Vapauteen laskettuja kapiallista" . Karjala (in Finnish). No. 22. Helsinki, Finland. 31 January 1922. p. 2. Retrieved 18 July 2023 – via
National Library of Finland .
^
"Maalaisliitto voitti Lapin vaalipiirissä" . Perä-Pohja (in Finnish). No. 157. Tornio, Finland. 12 July 1929. p. 1. Retrieved 17 July 2023 – via
National Library of Finland .